Pan de cristal with 100% whole-wheat bread flour
Consider this bread a baking adventure. Tackling 100% hydration in baker’s percentages is always challenging for bread makers. It’s not something we do often. At the same time, a new folding technique is introduced: the coil fold. (See the video below.) Something fun and an indispensable tool to learn in addition to the usual stretch-and-fold technique during bulk fermentation. Pan de cristal is a traditional bread, from the Catalan region in Spain, also known as the Glass Bread. It has a spectacular open crumb and a shatteringly light crust. In many ways, it reminds me of the ubiquitous Catalan tomato bread, served in tapa bars in Spain, with tomato rubbed on a flat baguette.
The adventure is how you can turn a slack dough, with the consistency of a pancake batter, into a cohesive dough. Until you’ve done it, you may remain forever a skeptic. Since I’ve made this bread several times, using different amount of whole-grain flour, there is no doubt in my mind that any baker can make a decent pan de cristal — 100% hydration notwithstanding.
The recipe comes from King Arthur Baking as the “bake of the week.” The writeup, the videos and the blog post are all excellent resources to ensure anyone can follow the recipe and be successful. Imagine, we can all bake without fail!
Here is my takeaway from many years of bread baking and tackling, particularly, the pan de cristal.
- The factors contributing to the open crumb and light crust are nothing new: high-protein bread flour, maximum hydration and minimal shaping. Pushing hydration to 100%, which I haven’t gone before, is indeed achievable. The technique here is to fold the slack dough early and frequently. After mixing the dough by hand, perform one bowl fold after 20 minutes. Transfer the dough to a shallow oiled tray. Then do a series of coil fold in the tray for an additional 3 to 4 times at 20-minute intervals, depending on dough strength. Skip the fold if the dough is strong enough, tight and easy to handle. The active phase of mixing and folding takes about 80 minutes.
- When the dough is sufficiently strong, the less the manhandling, the better it is for dough development. It’s counter-intuitive for bakers to leave the dough alone. But this message from the dough seems clear. We should leave it to rise and to expand undisturbed for another 80 minutes. If you don’t see any sizeable bubbles forming on the surface of the loaves, give it some time, add another 30 to 60 minutes.
- Divide, transfer, and load the loaves gently like they might explode. Don’t deflate the bubbles. I need to practice more in this. The final rise takes 2 hours. Bake the bread in a preheated 475°F for about 30 minutes. The bread is done in half a day. See the timeline below.
50% whole grains bread flour, 50% white bread flour
Pan de Cristal
Ingredients
- 500g /2 cups plus 3 tablespoons water*
- 500g /4 cups plus 2 1/2 tablespoons King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
- 2.5g /3/4 teaspoon) instant yeast
- 10g /2 teaspoons salt
- 15g /1 tablespoon olive oil, for the pan
Instructions
TO MAKE THE DOUGH: Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. (To measure by volume, see "tips," below.)
In a medium bowl, mix the water, flour, yeast, and salt until thoroughly combined and homogenous. Note: The dough starts off very slack and wet. That’s OK; it will transform itself through time and folds.
Oil a two-quart rectangular baking dish (10” x 7”) with the olive oil. If you don’t have a 2-quart dish, an 8” or 9” square pan will work. Don’t worry about any pan you use being oven-safe; you won’t be baking the bread in it.
Pour the dough into the pan. Check the dough’s temperature by inserting a digital thermometer into the center. If it's less than 72°F, move the pan to a warmer spot, e.g., your oven with the light turned on.
Cover the pan and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
START WITH A BOWL FOLD: Use your wet hands to grab a section of dough from one side, lift it up, then press it down into the middle. Repeat this eight to 12 times.
Cover the dish and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
THEN DO A COIL FOLD (#1): With wet hands, reach under the dough and stretch the middle upward until the dough releases from the dish. Roll it forward off your hands, allowing it to fold over (or “coil”) on itself. This is called a coil fold. Rotate the dish 90 degrees (a quarter turn) and repeat. Continue performing this folding action until the dough feels like it won’t stretch and elongate easily, usually four to five times initially. Note: You’ll be doing this three more times, each time building strength and developing the dough. See "tips," below, for more details,
Cover the pan and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
Repeat the coil fold (#2). Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
At this point, the dough should be easier to handle and feel tighter. Repeat the coil fold (#3) using only two or three folds this time. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
Repeat the coil fold (#4) one last time, using only one or two folds if the dough is relatively strong. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest for about 80 minutes.
TO DIVIDE THE DOUGH: As gently as possible, turn the dough out onto a heavily floured surface, maintaining the rectangle or square shape – be careful not to deflate the delicate dough. Sprinkle a generous amount of flour on top of the dough, leaving no exposed sticky spots. Then, working as gently as possible, use a bench knife or other sharp knife to divide it into four pieces. Gently place two pieces on a piece of parchment, leaving space between them. Repeat with the remaining two pieces of dough, placing them on another piece of parchment.
Allow the loaves to rest at room temperature for 2 hours, uncovered. While the loaves are resting, preheat the oven to 475°F with a baking stone or steel on a lower rack. Allow the oven to preheat for 1 hour to ensure it’s thoroughly heated. The loaves are ready for the oven when there are a few large bubbles on the surface of each loaf and they feel light and airy.
TO BAKE THE BREAD: Carefully slide the two loaves (still resting on the parchment) into the oven onto the preheated stone or steel. If space is tight and the full sheet of parchment won’t fit on the stone or steel, cut the parchment between the two loaves and arrange them as best you can. Allow the other two loaves to continue to rest.
Bake the loaves for 15 minutes, then transfer them, from the stone or steel, directly onto a rack in the upper third of the oven for an additional 13 to 15 minutes. (Leave the stone in place.) Moving them to the rack allows the baking stone or steel to become hot again in preparation for the next two loaves. After a total of 30 minutes of baking, remove the loaves from the oven and allow them to cool on a rack.
Repeat the process with the two remaining loaves. Cool the bread fully before slicing.
STORAGE INFORMATION: Wrap the bread loosely and store it at room temperature for up to several days; freeze for longer storage.
TIPS FROM OUR BAKERS
In warmer months (or when your indoor temperature is 70°F to 75°F), the water used should be 80°F to 85°F. In cooler months (when your indoor temperature is around 65°F), use 100°F to 105°F water. The DDT (desired dough temperature) at the end of mixing is 74°F to 76°F.
Depending on the strength of your dough, you may not need to perform all four coil folds. If after the third coil fold, the dough feels relatively strong, tight, and is easy to handle, immediately allow the dough to rest for 80 minutes and skip the final coil fold. This will ensure an open crumb structure.
This bread stales (and its crust softens) quickly due to its high ratio of crust to crumb. Re-crisp the loaf before serving by heating it in a preheated 400°F oven, uncovered, for about 8 to 10 minutes.
*This recipe was developed using metric weights, and for best results we recommend measuring by weight. However, we recognize that some bakers prefer to work with volume measurements. So while we strongly recommend measuring by weight, volume approximations for the recipe's ingredients are listed besides the weights. Please be sure you understand how to measure your flour the King Arthur way before you start.
Sample timeline:
12:00 p.m. Mix the dough | 12:20 p.m. Bowl fold | 12:40 p.m. Coil fold #1 | 1:00 p.m. Coil fold #2 | 1:20 p.m. Coil fold #3 | 1:40 p.m. Coil fold #4 | 3:00 p.m. Divide | 5:00 p.m. Bake
Notes
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pan-de-cristal-recipe
2 Comments
Prez
March 7, 2022 at 2:34 pmI rarely post on these sites but feel I should here. I have been on a sort of epic journey for the perfect homemade loaf for many years. In particular, to create a bread that I recall from the few years we lived in Italy and have not seen since. This recipe results in the best bread ever. Its tedious, tricky, time-consuming and at times frustrating, but the end-result is sensational. I’m guessing the reason this bread is hard/impossible to find commercially is because it is definitely small batch due to the time and labor-intensive process. Definitely recommend this recipe.
Shirley@EverOpenSauce
March 7, 2022 at 5:54 pmThanks so much for commenting on this rather unusual bread. I’d not eaten nor made the glass bread before. But it’s one amazing bread. Since this post, I’ve baked the bread from time to time. Like what you said, the bake can be tricky and frustrating. One time, I cover, instead of uncovering, the dough while resting, the crust did not turn out as crispy. One thing for sure, the recipe works if you follow every step along the way.